Veloso declared good chance in Melbourne Cup

Press, 3 August 1983, Page 26

Veloso declared good chance in Melbourne Cup

NZPA Melbourne Malcolm Barnes declared Sydney Cup'winner Veloso a force to be reckoned with in the 1983 Melbourne Cup after hearing the horse had received 55.5 kg in the race when weights for the race were released a few days ago. “I had hoped for 44kg, expected 55kg, and have no complaints about Veloso’s weight,” said a happy Barnes, the trainer of the horse.

“I have only one thing in mind for him and that is the Melbourne Cup." Veloso, which has just turned four, has been given 55.5 kg by the V.R.C. handicapper, Mr Jim Bowler, in the $310,000 Melbourne Cup (3200 m which will be run at Flemington on November 1, and 56.5 kg by V.A.T.C. handicapper, Mr Alan Wicks, in the $252,000 Caulfield Cup (2400 m on October 15.

The 1982 Caulfield-Mel-bourne Cup winner, Gumer’s Lane, has topweight of 60kg in the Melbourne Cup, 4kg more than he had last year, and last year’s runner-up Kingston Town has 59.5 kg. Kingston Town will not run in the Cup as he is being prepared for next

autumn. Barnes said that he will keep Veloso to non-penalty races before the Melbourne Cup. “I am quite happy with his weight and thought that Strawberry Road would get more than Veloso,” said Barnes.

Strawberry Road, the A.J.C. Derby and Queensland Derby winner, has been given a half kilo more than Veloso.

“I am delighted with the way Larry Pickering has returned him to me,” said Barnes.

Pickering, one of the part-owners of Veloso, had the horse resting on his Gosford property since Veloso’s last start second in the A.J.C. St Leger (2800 m at Randwick on April 25 before putting him into light work.

“I ran Veloso down the Randwick straight the other morning and he has built up considerably,” said Barnes. “He has done treadmill work and his hindquarters have built up to match his front now.” Barnes said that Veloso would resume racing either in the weight-for-age Premiere Stakes (1200 m at Canterbury on August 13 or the weight-for-age Warwick

Stakes (1400 m at Warwick Farm on August 20. The New Zealand trainer, Ray Verner, has no complaints about Prince Majestic’s weight of 58kg, the third-highest weight.

“That’s about the same as he got last year and I can’t complain,” said Verner. “He has 2kg too much compared with Gumer’s Lane in Brisbane.”

Prince Majestic won three successive races at Wellington and Eagle Farm (twice) before a last start fifth behind Lord Seaman in the Fourex Cup (2200 m at Doomben on July 9. “Prince Majestic is jogging and will resume racing either in the Tim Rodgers Stakes at Wanganui on the first Saturday in September or over 1600 m at Ellerslie on August 27,” said Verner. Fountaincourt’s trainer, Cyril Pfefferle, thought his horse had been handicapped a little high. ‘Fountaincourt got into the Sydney Cup earlier this year with 54kg and has gone up l%kg for running third,” said Pfefferle from his Trentham home. Fountaincourt finished third behind Veloso and the New Zealand three-year-old, Secured Deposit, in the Sydney Cup and won two of his

five Sydney starts last autumn.

The gelding has 55.5 kg in the Melbourne Cup and 56kg in the Caulfield Cup.

The general opinion among the New Zealand trainers was that the 1983 Wellington Cup winner, Kiwi, was in the Melbourne Cup light with only 52kg. Kiwi has won seven of his 24 starts and beat Maurita by a nose to win the Wellington Cup (3200 m at Trentham last January. Ernie Smith thought that the Tommy Smith-trained Just a Dash had been harshly handicapped. “He hasn’t won a race for almost two years,” said Ernie.

just a Dash, which won the 1981 Melbourne Cup with 53.5 kg, has been given fourth topweight of 57kg in the Melbourne Cup. “He is not racing well and struggling to find form,” said Ernie.

Just a Dash has been unplaced in four starts since resuming from a spell and was sixteenth in last year’s Melbourne Cup with 59.5 kg. Smith’s other main runners in the Melbourne Cup are Forward Charge 53.5 kg, Chiamare 52kg, Our Shout 52kg, and Lordship 51.5 kg.